(A) Attorney fees in all matters shall be governed by Rule 1.5 of the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct.(B) Attorney fees for the administration of estates shall not be paid until the final account is prepared for filing unless otherwise approved by the court upon application and for good cause shown.(C) Attorney fees may be allowed if there is a written application that sets forth the amount requested and will be awarded only after proper hearing, unless otherwise modified by local rule.(D) The court may set a hearing on any application for allowance of attorney fees regardless of the fact that the required consents of the beneficiaries have been given.(E) Except for good cause shown, attorney fees shall not be allowed to attorneys representing fiduciaries who are delinquent in filing the accounts required by section 2109.30 of the Revised Code.(F) If a hearing is scheduled on an application for the allowance of attorney fees, notice shall be given to all parties affected by the payment of fees, unless otherwise ordered by the court.(G) An application shall be filed for the allowance of counsel fees for services rendered to a guardian, trustee, or other fiduciary. The application may be filed by the fiduciary or attorney. The application shall set forth a statement of the services rendered and the amount claimed in conformity with division (A) of this rule.(H) There shall be no minimum or maximum fees that automatically will be approved by the court.(I) Prior to a fiduciary entering into a contingent fee contract with an attorney for services, an application for authority to enter into the fee contract shall be filed with the court, unless otherwise ordered by local court rule. The contingent fee on the amount obtained shall be subject to approval by the court.Commentary (October 1, 1997)
This rule is analogous to former C.P. Sup. R. 40. Divisions (A), (B), (C), (D), (E), (F), and (G) have not been amended substantively.
The second sentence of division (H), pertaining to contingent fee contracts, has been transferred to a new division (I) where it has been combined with former C.P. Sup. R. 39.
Division (I) recognizes that unless a governing instrument has given the power to the fiduciary, the fiduciary has no inherent authority to enter into a contingent fee contract on behalf of the trust. Authority must be granted by the court. The rule as amended adopts the previous rule which required the fiduciary to file an application to enter into a contingent fee contract prior to the contract becoming enforceable. The rule has been amended to permit courts to establish their own procedure in the contingent fee approval process. The second sentence of division (I) was a portion of former C.P. Sup. R. 39 and restates the court's authority to review the contingent fee contract to ascertain whether it meets with the additional standards of this rule.